John Gimson and Anna Burnet move into second in the Nacra 17 World Championship at La Grande Motte International Regatta for the 49er, 49erFX and Nacra Championships.
Their 1, 5 , 1 scoreline means the British team has closed the gap to four points behind week-long leaders Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti of Italy.
Tita and Banti won the other race while the rest of the Nacra fleet struggled to match the consistency of the front two.
The other strong Italians, Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubelei (2, 10, 11) are in third place. Two good races and one bad one put Ida Svensson and Marcus Dackhammar (3, 14, 3) in fourth overall.
In the men’s 49er Uruguay’s Hernan Umpierre and Fernando Diz posted 1, 1, 4 from the first three races of gold fleet competition at the European Championship . . . this is a big deal for an ambitious team from a small sailing nation.
They now moves to the top of the leaderboard, on equal points with Britain’s James Peters and Fynn Sterritt (10, 11, 19) who now sit in second.
Five points behind in third are the Kiwis Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie (3, 6, 3) with a one pont advantage from the Swiss Sebastien Schneitter and Arno de Plante.
James Grummett and Rhos Hawes (16, 24, 20) had a tough day and drop to sixth overall.
In the women’s FX, just two races was fine for France’s Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon a 6 and 2 taking them into a threee point lead.
Second are the Belgians Isaura Maenhaut and Anouk Geurts who won the last race of the light-airs afternoon. In third it’s the Canadian sisters, Georgia and Antonia Lewin-LaFrance.
The Team GB pair Freya Black and Saskia Tidey (7, 18) slip to sixth overall. Eleanor Keers and Jessica Jobson are 21st.
With more light airs on the cards, the organisers will be hoping that the Mediterranean sunshine will bring more sea breeze to get races complete.
Saturday is the last full day of gold fleet racing before a final gold fleet race on Sunday morning leading into the 10-boat medal races in La Grande Motte.
